Fantasy baseball: For many sluggers, it was bomb’s away in May

Toronto Blue Jays' Edwin Encarnacion, right, is congratulated by teammate Adam Lind after he hit a two-run home run off Kansas City Royals starting pitcher James Shields during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2014. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Thornhill)

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Power hitters put on an amazing display in May, led by Edwin Encarnacion’s amazing 16-homer month.

The Blue Jays slugger struggled in April with just two home runs and fantasy owners were concerned that the wrist surgery he underwent in September was sapping his power.

So much for that!

Encarnacion tied Mickey Mantle’s AL record for homers in May, falling one short of Barry Bonds’ MLB record. He also became the third player in MLB history to have five multi-homer games in a month, matching a feat only accomplished by Harmon Killebrew and Albert Belle.

Encarnacion wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a power explosion in May.

The Orioles’ Nelson Cruz smashed 13 homers in the month, giving him an MLB-leading 20 on the season.

Astros rookie George Springer hit 10 home runs in the month, including seven in a seven-game stretch that ended with one against Cruz’s Orioles on Friday.

That’s eight hitters who slugged at least eight homers in May, each seeing their fantasy value surge in the process. I’d say sell high on some of these guys, but anyone who owns these guys is so happy with them that they wouldn’t dare part with them.

Enjoy the ride and maybe a few of them can give you an encore in June.

As for the coming week, including nine interleague series. St. Louis has seven interleague games, trading two-game series with Kansas City before heading to Toronto for three games.

The ace of the week is Felix Hernandez, who pitches at the Yankees on Monday before heading south to face the Rays on Sunday. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has two starts, but the second one comes against the Rockies at pitcher’s nightmare Coors Field.

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The sleeper of the week is Zack Wheeler, who is coming off his best start of the season (nine strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings at Philadelphia) and gets road starts against the lowly Cubs and in the Giants’ pitcher-friendly AT&T Park.

The breakout player of the week is Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals rookie who made his MLB debut on Saturday and homered in his second at-bat. This is a potentially elite hitter that needs to be added in all leagues.

Stud and dud of the week

George Springer: The Astros rookie was hitting .224 with no home runs through his first 19 games before showing signs of life with three homers in his next 12 games. Then came the explosion with seven homers in seven games, six coming during the week that I’m going off – last Saturday to Friday. Springer went 10-for-28 with six homers, 11 runs and 14 RBIs during that seven-game stretch. The only quibble fantasy owners might have - and it’s a minor one - is that he’s yet to flash the speed part of his game. He had 45 stolen bases combined between Double- and Triple-A last year, then four steals in 13 games with Oklahoma City this season, but he is just 1-for-3 on stolen base attempts with Houston. If he starts running, Springer could be a top-10 outfielder the rest of the way.

Chris Davis: The Orioles slugger came off the DL with a bang two weeks ago with a three-homer game, but slumped to a 1-for-20 this past week. Davis may have a pretty good excuse, as he missed two games for the birth of his first child, a daughter. His mind was likely elsewhere as he returned to the Orioles on their road trip. Expect to see him get back on track this coming week with a three-game series at his former team, the Rangers, before coming back home to face the A’s.

For updated in-season position rankings to help gauge trades and waiver-wire pickups, go to www.rotoace.com.